The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star by Nikki Sixx Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star
Book Review: A book to relate too.
Summary: 5 Stars
As a recovered heroin addict myself, I found this book to be horrifyingly real. Not only did it touch upon the disgusting reality that is sticking a needle in your arm, but tt also touches on what happens to those around you. Drug abuse and addiction harms more then just yourself. I feel that this book is a beautiful yet necessary grotesque way of encouraging me and others to stay sober. Book Review: Addicted
Summary: 5 Stars
I just got this book in the mail today. As soon as I saw the box, i ripped through it and pulled out The Heroin Diaries. I'm already hooked. When I read The Dirt I was 15 and I couldn't put it down. I'm not big on reading, in fact I don't like it much at all. But there's something about the way it's written. It's real, it's raw, and it's relatable (at least it was for me). For anyone wondering what it's like to be an out-of-control addict, this is THE book. The pages flow with euphoria, paranoia, and psychosis. It grasps the desperate, helpless, hopeless feeling of hitting rock bottom, surviving the fall, and finding the will to get up again.Book Review: The Devil in Sixx Sixx Sixx
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very cool product. I expected a straight-ahead diary, but found a graphic scrapbook of sorts; very engaging. He starts out quoting one of my favorite rockers, Alice Cooper, which roped me right in. Like most diaries, it left me wanting to know more, but it's a very honest, often funny look at one year in the out-of-control life of an addict--who happened to be a rock star.Book Review: Suspicious but intriguing
Summary: 3 Stars
The Heroin Diaries, written by Ian Gittins and Nikki Sixx, is a thoughtfully assembled project and quite a good read but I'm just not sure how much Nikki Sixx really had to do with it.
I am by no means suggesting that Nikki Sixx is not intelligent enough to write a book. His brilliance is clearly evident in his success in making M?tley Cr?e one of the biggest bands of the 1980s (who can also still fill stadiums 20+ years later.) My suspicion stems from the impression that the book reads more like a story based on a year in the life of Nikki Sixx than an actual account.
Although it is written in diary form complete with dates, times and locations, it reads too smoothly and coherently to be a real diary. Journals are not that thorough especially ones written by a strung-out, hard-core heroin addict. The voice throughout the book also has a little too much "English" on it to be primarily that of Nikki Sixx. Imagine Joe Elliot from Def Leppard telling you about a year in the life of Nikki Sixx; that's the tone. I suspect Ian Gittin's did the lion's share of the writing after interviewing Sixx, as well as other players who are quoted throughout and maybe combing through some random notes from that time period. Then Nikki Sixx read and rubber-stamped it perhaps adding a few more remarks.
Regardless of Sixx's level of involvement, it is a good book. The diary approach with added comments from people who close to Sixx at that time, is a creative and refreshing approach especially considering how glutted the music biography market is right now. Although Vanity (aka Evangelist Denise Matthews) was somewhat abused in the process. Gittins and Sixx used her remarks as a bit of comic relief. Nothing she said had anything to do directly with the entry before it or Nikki Six for that matter. Her comments were little fire and brimstone sermons warning against a hedonistic lifestyle. It's not exaggerating to say Gittins and Sixx portrayed her like a fool.
It is also not surprising. We learn in the Heroin Diaries that nice is not really Sixx's style. He really lets it all hang out and is honest about his abusive behavior toward his bandmates, managers, women (he describes knocking Vanity out cold and dragging her out of his house by her hair) and basically anyone within earshot at times. He also, of course, abuses himself with addictive substances including but not limited to pot, alcohol, cocaine and, of course, heroin. There are very descriptive passages detailing the paranoia and depression that he suffered including chronic hallucinations. The Added Comments section following each entry allowed the people Sixx hurt to vent what their feelings were toward him at the time. It is interesting to see where they agree and where they react differently. The level of awareness fluctuates fairly dramatically from person to person.
Occasionally, Sixx comments on his own entries. Oddly enough he rarely shows much emotion in these instances. He'll usually give some more background but does not show remorse. Although, you do at times pick up a hint of pride or at least amusement.
I wasn't convinced that the more outlandish stories actually happened. Tom Zutaut did corroborate that Sixx had sex with Zutaut's date right in front of him and others backstage one night. (The authors also felt compelled to mention that girl was menstruating at the time.) However, it is about as believable as Alice Cooper's claim to have masturbated and then deposited the results in his sister's doughnut. (A story Cooper has since retracted.) Every hard rock memoir seems to require a handful of over-the-top, gross-out moments in the hopes of becoming lore. It is also worth mentioning that Tom Zutaut seems to be the go-to guy to corroborate more than a few of these gross-outs.
Since it is only a year-long account from twenty years ago, it's not particularly clear whether Sixx has changed his evil ways. He does include a bullet point listing of his life from the late eighties through 2006 in which he briefly recounts his numerous attempts to beat drugs, relapse then beat them again; get married, have kids, get divorced, get married to Donna Derico, have kids, cheat and get divorced again. Suffice to say, he appears to be no angel but you get the sense that he is trying to find a balance.
One such effort at redemption is that Sixx is donating profits from the Heroin Diaries to Running Wild, a charity he set up with Covenant House to help runaway children. He also states in the introduction that his intention behind the book is to discourage people from taking drugs. I'm not qualified to determine if this book can make that kind of impact but I do believe he is sincere. These last two considerations alone make Heroin diaries worth picking up but if you just want crap on the Cr?e, you'll find that too.
Book Review: Theres no Hero in Heroin
Summary: 5 Stars
this was the most brutally honest personal account of addiction as i have ever read. as i recovering meth and heroin addict, i found it humbling and written with a pure heart. this book challenged me as a reader and addict to take myself back to my own closet of despair and to remember my life as it was, and to realize how far I have come. Nikki is really merciless to himself and effectively portays just about the ugliest picture of addiction and depression that the mind can comprehend. As I read these memoires and their respective commentaries, I felt a mixture of pain, humour, sorrow, joy and inspiration, encouragement and redemption. I actually cried and prayed after having read the final pages of this groundbreaking book of unprecedented truth. The Heroin Diaries is not for the weak minded or the squeamish. It is a priceless addition to my collection of autobiographies. A must read.